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Essay Vanilla Sky – Themes Teaching Lessons Andy
Strasburg
“I was about to turn thirty three. I ran three magazines and a world wide publishing house. Now most days I actually fooled myself into believing it would last forever. Isn’t that what being young is about? Believing secretly that you would be the one person in the history of man that would live forever?” (Vanilla Sky, 2001)
David Aames, the main character in the film Vanilla Sky, has it all; his words betray his notion of invincibility and self-confidence. If possessions and financial success are the standards of a good life, David is one of the luckiest men in the world. Vanilla Sky, however, is not a film about material wealth; it’s a story that looks beyond superficial property, looks deeper into the consciousness of humanity, and asks, what is happiness? David begins to answer this question for himself when he meets and falls in love with Sofia. This newfound emotion is abruptly interrupted when David is involved in a nearly fatal car crash hours after meeting her. He loses mobility in his arm; his face is marred by huge, ugly scars; and headaches “cut like steal plates through [his] every thought” (Vanilla Sky, 2001). Suddenly, all that once defined David is gone. He is left with only himself. He commits suicide, and is frozen and placed in a lucid dream[1], where technology allows him his every desire. It is through this scientific dream that the true themes of Vanilla Sky unfold. Finally, David is able to see what matters most – friendship, dreams, happiness – even if the life he knows is nothing more than science fiction. By analyzing these three life-changing discoveries for David in greater detail, the powerful, real-life applications of Vanilla Sky come to light. Vanilla Sky examines the element of friendship by presenting three dynamically different friendships in David’s lucid dream and life. The first of these friendships reveals how jealousy and rivalry can affect a life-long bond. David and Brian have been life long friends. David is the one with success, good looks, and money; or, stated differently, he is a rich pretty-boy magazine publisher who never sleeps with the same girl twice.” (Noiku, 2002) Brian, on the other hand, is a struggling writer whose only claim to fame is his association with David. Brian clearly feels inferior to David and at times is even jealous of his friend. Brian reveals his feelings of inferiority when he states “you’re paying me to write my novel, so technically you own me” (Vanilla Sky, 2001). These differences are accentuated even more when both David and Brian become attracted to the same woman, Sofia. While Brian meets her first, David and Sofia have better chemistry. Again Brian lashes out in frustration at David: “you stole her from me. The one girl I really wanted and you took her from me” (Vanilla Sky, 2001). For David, Sofia gives a refreshing new outlook on life. Her philosophy of “good things will happen if you are a good person with a good attitude” is infectiously contagious for David (Vanilla Sky, 2001). David and Brian continue their dichotomous relationship throughout the rest of the film. Sofia sees that David puts his own desires before his loyalty to his friend. She sarcastically says “I can see that friendship is important to you” when David dismisses the fact that Brian would be hurt by their courting. (Vanilla Sky, 2001) In his lucid dream David, manifests Brian as someone constantly trying to get what David has. When he finally returns to reality, David realizes that Brian was a true friend all along. David and Brian’s friendship shows that two friends must not let competition and jealousies come between them. Respect, give and take, and trust are part of the ideal friendship Vanilla Sky attempts to project through the relationship between David and Brian. The next friendship presented in Vanilla Sky is that between a boss and his employee. Thomas Tipp has been working for David's family for years. He worked for David’s father, and he now works for David. Here, the element of loyalty to one’s friend is presented. Thomas has a track record of success but recently has become incompetent. Nonetheless, David has faith in his old friend and gives him a raise as a show of confidence. This act of kindness and putting friendship above business interests does not go unnoticed. In David’s lucid dream, Thomas Tipp is the one who helps David when he is accused of battery. In reality, Thomas “wrenches the company back into [David’s] control” after David’s accident (Vanilla Sky, 2001). Thomas Tipp will never give up on David because David did not give up on him. This loyalty between two people is very inspiring and contrasts with Brian and David’s inability to put their friendship above their feelings for a girl. This friendship shows never to give up on someone else, even when things look bad. This attitude is a critical component to the important theme of friendship in Vanilla Sky. A third type of friendship explored is that between David and Julie. Julie and David are in a casual relationship with no real commitment. For David, Julie is an escape from the pressures of his work and life. While they have sex, David does not have any concrete feelings for her and does not entertain any ideas of the relationship going anywhere. According to David, Julie is “a friend he sometimes sleeps with” (Hailey, 2001). Julie, on the other hand, loves David. She knows how he feels but cannot confront him, for fear that he might break the friendship off. Here, Vanilla Sky explores the dynamics of a friendship between two people of the opposite sex. It looks at the promises one makes to one’s partner when having sex. Lust, worry, and tension are constantly present when the two are around one another. Even after seeing Sofia, David cannot resist the sexual temptation of getting into the car with Julie, a mistake that will cost him Sofia forever. The intricate relationship that David has built with Julie is enough to cause her to essentially lose her mind and commit suicide with David in the car. David and Julie’s relationship examines the fine line between friends and lovers and the dangers of mixing the two. It shows the implications of having sex with another person and the promises that come along with it. Through each of these friendships, Vanilla Sky examines the dynamics of friendship and inspires the audience to do the same. The second critical theme in Vanilla Sky is dreams versus reality. The movie asks, what is real? Director Cameron Crowe states that “the goal was a movie filled with clues and signposts” (Prelude to a Dream, 2001). Throughout the entire movie, the audience is left trying to decipher what is real and what is a dream. There are three key dreams portrayed in the film. The first is at the very beginning. David wakes up and goes through his morning routine just like any day. As he drives down the streets of New York City, he sees that nothing is routine about this day. There is no one around, not even in Times Square. David quickly wakes up and proceeds to mimic the exact sequence of his dream. This time, however, when he makes his way to work, the streets are alive with people. This dream seems to suggest that David is really alone in the world. While in reality there are many people around him going about their lives, and even many who depend on him for their survival, he has no one, as his dream suggests. This dream is also a metaphor for the lucid dream he will enter later on in the film. His ability to wake up from this dream correlates with his eventual waking up from his lucid dream. David’s dream was eerily similar to a day in reality, just as his lucid dream is completely real to his mind. The second dream occurs directly after the accident. David is in Central Park talking to Sofia on a beautiful fall day. He tells her that he had a dream that he was in a terrible accident but he survives “with [his] arm and face reconstructed” (Vanilla Sky, 2001). He tells her that the worst part about this dream is that he cannot wake up. Presumably David is referring to the fact that he is in a coma. This dream is especially significant because David refers to having a dream while he is in a dream. This further blurs what is real and what is just a dream. David’s final dream is his lucid dream. Richard R. Bootein states that a lucid dream is “being able…to act deliberately upon reflection; all while experiencing a dream world that seems vividly real” (Bootein, 126). David’s deliberate reflection centers around Sofia. While in real life she wants nothing to do with the person David has become since his accident, in his lucid dream, Sofia looks past David’s scarred face and loves him anyway. They go on to live a good life together, and David is eventually healed completely. “You hardly knew her in your real life, but in your lucid dream she was your savior," states the Life Extensions technical support when talking to David about Sofia (Vanilla Sky, 2001). This dream lasts one hundred and fifty years, as David’s body is chriogenetically frozen. The film at this point is filled with constant references to the fact that David needs to “wake up”. His psychiatrist asks him “can you tell the difference between dreams and reality?” (Vanilla Sky). This very question is what the audience is trying to figure out itself. In the end David does wake up. He realizes that he does not want to live a dream; he wants to live a real life, even if that means dealing with rejection and pain. Each of these dreams has worked to show that there is no escaping reality. Even when one thinks that one has everything, one can lose it all in a moment. Vanilla Sky uses dreams to show that there is no substitution for truly living, even if it means feeling pain and sadness. The final theme of Vanilla Sky is an attempt to define happiness. “What is happiness to you David?” is a question David is confronted with on several occasions throughout the film (Vanilla Sky, 2001). David must realize that happiness is not what he at first believed it to be. Sir John Lubbock states that humanity “may have many pleasures in life but must not let pleasures have rule over [it] or [life] will soon hand [humanity] over to sorrow” (Lubbock, 10). Just as Sir Lubbock warns, David’s world filled with material pleasures leave him only with sadness. He learns through pain and rejection what really matters to him in his life. At the end of the film David is faced with his “moment of choice” (Vanilla Sky, 2001). David can either return to his lucid dream or venture out into the real world. The theme of happiness is seen in that David has learned that he cannot be happy living in a dream where his every wish is fulfilled. He can only find true happiness embracing life and all it has to offer. “It’s hard to comprehend, but remember, they laughed at Jules Verne too” (Vanilla Sky, 2001). David’s lucid dream was difficult to comprehend. It defied all logic; he was in a world when his every wish could be granted. His subconscious overpowered his thoughts and turned the dream into a nightmare. David could not live in a dream where everything was perfect; it was too foreign. He learned that friendship and happiness were really what mattered; he learned to live. In the process, he might have taught one or two viewers to do the same. [1] Richard R. Bootein states that a lucid dream is “recovery of self-reflective awareness during sleep” or the ability to dictate what happens to oneself in a dream. (Bootein, 36)
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